Solstice

Today is the shortest day of the year. Or, tonight is the longest night of the year. This advent I keep coming back to the theme of darkness, both as something to be feared and as something to be embraced.

Darkness is when we sleep, are renewed and rested. It holds everything without definition, and makes an opportunity for those unknown processes of growth and subconscious change to take hold. Darkness hides us and blurs boundaries.

A hymn to this effect:

Slowly, Slowly the Evening Falls

By Bret Helsa

Slowly, slowly the evening falls ‘til the stars appear.

Slowly, slowly my thoughts unwind. Clouds within me clear.

Slowly, slowly the silence grows like a snowfall piling deep.

Slowly, slowly the darkness calls me to sleep.

Praise the God of the evening, Mother of the fertile dark.

Praise the God of the silence in the void between the stars.

Send your holy shadows. Cover us, oh God of might.

Make us whole and keep us in the womb of the night.